


Ordinary Man

by FrentaFrone (frenc)



Category: SKAM (Norway), SKAM (TV), SKAM (TV) RPF
Genre: Angst, David has a little brother, Fictional, Fluff, Henrik making breakfast, M/M, Not real, Tarjei is grumpy, but still cute, didn't happen, whatsoever
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-15
Updated: 2017-07-18
Packaged: 2018-12-02 12:37:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11509581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frenc/pseuds/FrentaFrone
Summary: Something happened during the SKAM after party.





	1. Tarjei

**Author's Note:**

> It's fictional. None of this happened. 
> 
> I apologize if this offends you and feel free to close this tab.

 

_So you say it's ordinary, love_

_That's impossible to do_

_No such thing as ordinary, love_

_I was ordinary just to you_

_ > MIKA - Ordinary Man <_

 

_\-----_

Tarjei found the quiet bathroom on the top floor. He closed the door behind him and let out a long breath. The rest of the cast was dancing downstairs, but Tarjei was a little too drunk after all, even though he really needed the company. There was no one in here. The silence was almost calming with the loud drum beats seeping in through the floor. Tarjei walked out from the compartment to the sink to wash his hands.

“Hi!” The unmistakable voice greeted him. It was Henrik.

“Hi.” He replied with a smile and looked down at his hands.

A short silent. Tarjei couldn't help but laugh, thinking about how ironic this was at the moment. The last day they were together as part of the cast, they met again in the bathroom, just like how things started.

“What is it?” Henrik chuckled and turned his head to Tarjei. His striped shirt was wrinkled around the waist, his collar wide open. He looked a little bit flushed and with a soft glow, probably from all the drinks and dancing.

“Nothing.” Tarjei chuckled.

The electronic paper towel dispenser was between them. Tarjei reached for it and tore off a piece of paper. Then Henrik waited until it rolled out some more. Tarjei again found it a bit funny that this is how things are now, this is how it would end.

Henrik torn off a piece too and dried his hands, leaning against the counter. He was almost facing Tarjei, who was also drying his hands with the minimum of his effort and the slowest of his speed. He was a little too drunk for any slightly fast body movements after all. 

The tension in the room was palpable, like there were words popping into thin air. Tarjei decided it was really not the best time to have a conversation, given that it might be the last time they were alone in a room together, maybe, not to exaggerate, forever. Come to think of it, they hardly ever had. And Henrik was probably feeling a bit uneasy now, cause he might want to get back to his friends and girlfriend. Plus they didn’t have to get along anymore, and he was just too nice, like he always had been. So Tarjei crumpled the damp paper towel into a ball and threw it into the bin under the sink. He tried his best to lift his eyes from his hands to give Henrik a final smile before he made himself walk away.

And he heard him calling his name, followed by a small sigh and a chuckle.

Well fuck. He had to turn around now. So he did, with what’s left of the smile he put on earlier, and a barely-raised eyebrow.

And Henrik just stood there, stared right into his eyes. With his stupid lopsided smile and his stupid huge blue eyes. He couldn't help but smile back at him. Gosh he was too charming like this.

“What?” He chuckled.

“So… What’s up?” Henrik moved one step closer, eyes on him.

“Nothing much.” Tarjei shrugged. “I’m feeling a bit light-headed so,” He reached up to rub his right eye. “Think I’m gonna head home soon.” He stared at a piece of tissue on the floor before shooting Henrik a short glance. “You?”

“I’ve been looking for you all night and I couldn’t find you.” He took another step forward, leaning his hip back against the counter, smiling. “Where have you been hiding?”

Tarjei couldn’t help but brightening up. It was annoying how much Henrik could influence him. He let out a small laugh. “I was just in the backroom with some friends earlier, trying to get some air.” Well at least he wouldn't be “annoyed” for much longer. Soon Henrik would have to find someone else for it. He might already have. Tarjei's stomach sank at the very idea, while he focused on evening out his breathing.

“Okay. Good. Cause I was worried you left without telling me.” Henrik put one hand on his heart and chuckles, leaning forward. “Or you were too drunk to do that.”

 _Well that was the plan._ Tarjei thought to himself. He opened his mouth trying to laugh at it or say something mildly smart, but ended up saying a barely audible “Nei”.

Once again, they fell into silence. Tarjei would kill to get out of this NOW. 

For a second he thought maybe he could get away saying shits like “what are you talking about bro hug me goodbye now don’t miss me too much” or “don’t worry I promise we’ll be hanging out all the time” and let the guilt sink in over cup noodles and hangover the next morning. 

He knew it all too well, that _things would pass whether or not you talk them through, they just do._ There was simply too much noise and distractions for the two of them, and whatever this was, special as it might feel, would just turn into some distant memory, a sting in the heart only when it got brought up once in awhile. _It just couldn’t last, simple as that._  

That was what he told himself during their last day of shooting. He couldn’t focus and just wanted to get it over with. And almost all his energy went to trying to patch up his broken heart and put on a smile. But somehow he still ended up at Ulrikke’s afterwards. He didn’t know why. Neither of them were really drunk or high the whole time, sitting across from each other, randomly chatting, bantering, laughing but not in their eyes, ready to stay forever and flee in the next minute.

Thoughts ran through his head like a fast train, making his head spin even more. Before he knew it, Henrik took one more step and suddenly they were face to face.

“There is something I wanted to say.” Henrik said slowly, a bit hesitant but determined. His head was low and he was looking at Tarjei from his lashes. “About us.” He continued.

Tarjei’s breath hitched. His heart was banging in his ears. “What about us?” He couldn’t look at him, he feared he might burst. His own voice was foreign, and too loud in the little space between them.

“You and me. Us.” Henrik bit his lips. He sounded more determined than nervous this time. He breathed in sharply and continued, “I don’t want this to end Tarjei.”

Tarjei flinched at his name and finally looked up at him. Henrik held his gaze. _This isn’t happening._ Tarjei thought to himself. He didn’t know why but suddenly he was angry. _Why can’t he just let me be!_ He was caught up by so many things in his head, he didn’t know where to start.

“This?” He realized his tone might have come a little more harsh than intended.

“This. Yes. I’ve… I mean,” Henrik suddenly stopped and his smile was gone. He looked down for the first time since they started the conversation, searching for his words. “I don’t want you to... just… walk out of my life, when you walk out that door today."

Tarjei wanted to say that it was not possible, to just “walk out of his life”. Because he tried, since it was the only way to get over him, over _“this”_ , maybe not now but someday.

Henrik wanted him in his life? More like as a friend. Of course. They would have become such good friends if Tarjei was not fucking in love with him. Tarjei waved the idea out of his head. He was way too tired for this. He could barely make their friendship work with the excuse of being Isak. It was all going to fail terribly. And in the end of the day he would just ended up out of his life anyways. So what’s the point.

“I’m not going to do that.” And that was a lie and they both knew it.

“But you are.” Henrik let out a small laugh. He sounded he was trying to hide the fact that he was hurt. “You have already been avoiding me."

Tarjei laughed but he was about to cry. “I wasn’t avoiding you.” He looked up at Henrik, just for a short second before looking down again. _God. He looked so sad and confused._ Tarjei thought, and his heart wrenched. “I just wanted to be alone really. Needed time to think. There’s a lot going on.” He paused, composing himself, and then shrugged. “School and stuff.”

“Yeah?” Henrik sounded a little bit relieved, yet still seemed concerned. “Well I’m always here if you want someone to talk to.” He paused before adding, “Is everything alright?”

“Yeah. I’m okay. Takk.” Tarjei replied right away, even with a smile. _Is there even another answer to this?_ Tarjei thought to himself, hoping that Henrik had dropped the conversation “about us”. “It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.”

“Okay.” Henrik relaxed visibly, before he was tense all over. “So… when can I see you again?”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was listening to MIKA's Ordinary Man when I was writing this, hence the title.


	2. Henrik

 

_Just like a king who's losing his worth_

_I'm like the sun that's fallen to Earth_

_Everyone thinks that I'm staying the same_

_Are they secretly happy that I am in pain?_

 

_ > MIKA - Ordinary Man < _

 

\-----

 

“Hey man.” David sat down next to Henrik at the bar with two shots in his hands and placed one in front of him, the other down his throat, his hair damp and his steps still bouncy. “Did you talk to him?”

Henrik shook his head. He moved the shot glass away from him a little bit in case he knocked it over. His eyes were hazy. “I mean... yes. But no.”

“What?” David paused and processed what he said for a minute, obviously not trusting himself knowing how many shots he just had. “What??”

“I asked him and I tried to…” He waved a hand while his words trailed off, to which David nodded with an “un-huh”, knowing what a stubborn, grumpy little son of a bitch Tarjei could be sometimes.

“But he didn’t want to talk to me.” He grabbed the glass and downed the shot in one gulp, grimaced. “He doesn’t want me David.” His voice was so empty. David’s eye twitched.

“Okay hold that thought. What did he actually say?” David said without looking even a bit discouraged.

“He said he was stressed about school and stuff, and he was not avoiding me.” Henrik let out a shuddering breath and sniffled. He looked so drained. “Is he doing alright in school?”

“Not worse than usual.” David joined the thought, frowning. “Since when did he care about school stuff?”

Henrik sighed. “That’s what I thought.” He bit his bottom lip, breath hitched. “He barely even looked at me.”

David looked puzzled, pursing his lips like he was trying very hard to figure it out and make everything stop hurting. “Wh...what else did he say?”

“I asked him when we can meet again and just… hang out,” David nodded and put a hand on his back trying to hold him together. “Cause I thought he might go to Roskilde, but he said he planned to go to the parade on the weekend. With Carl.”

“Yeah he told me they want to give him an award or something.” David still looked puzzled, but he decided now it was more important to cheer up Henrik a bit. He looked awful. “Hey don’t worry man. I will make sure we all hang out as soon as you get back.”

“I don’t think he wants that anymore. But thank you. You are so good to me.” Henrik stood up from his seat, trying to turn around and give David a hug, but missed his body miserably. David catched his arm and took half of his weight on his shoulder. He grunted, barely keeping the two of them upright. “Okay. Um. Let me get you home yeah?”

“I don’t think I can go home right now.” Henrik ran a hand through his mussed fringe, his hand shaking slightly. He reached behind him to find the chair he was sitting in, turned his head when he didn’t feel a backrest.

“Okay.” David helped him to sit back into the chair, one hand still gripping on his arm. “But the bar is closing soon. Do you want to stay at mine?”

Henrik looked at the empty shot glass for several seconds, and finally turned to look at David. “Is that okay?” His voice was small and his eyes were glassy.

“Of course! It’ll just be me and my brother. You can sleep in my room. I’ll sleep in my parents’.” David smiled affirmatively, raising his eyebrows like he was waiting for a response. Henrik nodded and muttered a small grateful “takk” under his breath.

“Alright! Shall we go?” David moved the hand on his arm, trying to get him on his feet again. The bartender came and took the shot glasses, which distracted Henrik for a second. He eventually stood up on his own while David pulled out his phone from his back pocket. It was almost 5 now. They really should go. There were not many people in the lounge at this point, most of them were staff from the venue. The spotlights were still rolling near the stage area, music from hours ago was still on, just not as loud, and nobody was dancing.

David put his phone back in his pocket and wrapped an arm around Henrik’s shoulder, ignoring the buzz of a new text, followed by another not long after.

 

 **Tarjei** (4.53):

_Are you still here?_

 

 **Tarjei** (4.56):

_Can I stay at yours tonight?_

 

 


	3. David

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Henrik makes breakfast.

 

 **Rumen** (9.33):

_Yo is Tarjei with you?_

 

**2 missed phone calls from Rumen**

 

David was hangover. It was hardly his first time but he could never get used to the awful feeling. He was far from ready to start his day. Still in his jeans, he squirmed at the persistent buzz in his back pocket.

“What the hell.” He fished out his phone, looked at the locked screen with his dry, tiring, barely-opened eyes. There were a whole lot of messages, a few missed phone calls and some more messages from instagram.

As soon as he unlocked the phone a low power alert popped up. He ignored it without giving it a thought. He then clicked the message app icon and scrolled down, ignoring messages from the group chats at the top.

He frowned at Rumen’s message, tapped on the input box and started to type.

 

 **David** (10.02) (draft)

_No I didn’t see him sinc_

 

 **Rumen** (10.02)

_Nvm I got him_

 

 **David** (10.03) (draft)

_Okay. is he alri_

 

His phone died without a warning. Well technically it did warn him. He sighed heavily, resisting the temptation to hurl his phone to the wall, and then felt around to look for the charging cable in its usual place behind the nightstand. But it wasn’t there. He finally opened his eyes properly this time, realized that he wasn’t in his own room. _Right._ He thought. _Henrik._

But before anything, he had to hydrate or he would _definitely die_. So he dragged himself to the kitchen and was greeted by the heavenly scent of caramelized butter. Henrik, in his clothes from last night and a white tea towel on his shoulder, was flipping a piece of toast in a pan. David cleared his throat and entered the kitchen.

“Morning.” He greeted David with a little smile, adjusting the tea towel, to which David nodded and returned a miserable smile. Henrik then gracefully slid the toast into a plate and put the plate in front of Ian, David’s 14-year-old brother, who was seated at the table in his pajamas with a glass of milk in his hand.

“Hello brother. Look at me having my second breakfast today that you didn’t make.” Ian said with a teasing smile and raised eyebrows.

“Well I can’t cook shit so you wouldn’t eat it even if I made it.” David grabbed an empty glass from the shelf and filled it up with tap water. He took a big gulp and sighed at the feeling of coming back to life.

David peeked at Ian’s plate. _Is he even real?_ He thought to himself. _There’s an EGG in the fucking toast._

“Yeah that’s probably true.” Ian laughed and took a bite into the toast, moaning at the crunchiness. “Ugh it’s so good.” Henrik turned his head and smiled. David rolled his eyes. _It did look quite nice._

“How do you like yours? Cinnamon?” Henrik asked before cracking an egg into the pan with one hand. David nodded, leaning in to observe the egg sitting perfectly in the center of the toast. “Thanks for letting me stay here.”

“Anytime.” David raised the glass of water at him. He paused and studied Henrik’s face. “How are you feeling?”

Henrik looked at him briefly and then back to the pan, lifting a corner of the toast with the spatula. “Honestly I don’t know.” He scraped the butter knife on the edge of the pan; the butter slid down and sizzled around the bread crust. He waited for a little bit and flipped the toast in one swift motion, the egg making bubbly sound at the contact with the pan. “Maybe I should take some time to think.”

David watched the toast in the pan and the moving spatula, mesmerized. He nodded at his words, “Yeah sure. Don't think too much though. I mean you know he’s a real grump when he’s drunk, right? It’s kind of amazing that he managed to stay and talk and be NICE about it. And that my friend, is a really good sign.” He put the empty glass into the sink and folded his arms. “You should try again. Believe me there are plenty of opportunities. Try sometime when he’s not shitfaced and can have a normal human conversation.”

Henrik smiled at that, but there was sadness in his eyes. And David didn’t want to push him right now, not when he was so clearly heartbroken and still making breakfast for him and his brother. He wished he could just tell Tarjei for him, knowing it would be much easier for both of them, but he wouldn’t do it if Henrik didn’t want him to.

“Yeah, sure. Maybe. I guess. I don’t know.” He gave David a sad smile and handed him his plate of toast, steamy and buttery, with cinnamon on top.

“Wow. Takk.” David wanted to hug him better. “Have you eaten though?”

“Yeah I had the first one.” Henrik took the pan to the sink and turned on the water. “Clearly Ian doesn’t like cinnamon.”

Ian shudders at the idea of cinnamon. “It is the worst.” He put down his glass of milk, licking his upper lip. “Are you guys talking about Tarjei?”

Henrik turned his head so fast, like he was startled by the name simply being mentioned, a foamy pan in one hand, washing cloth in the other. Then he returned to his task, looking a little embarrassed. David almost choked on his toast, his eyes wide in surprise.

“Are... you fighting or something?” Ian asked carefully, eyeing his brother. David stared at him warningly.

“Not really. No.” Henrik chuckled, voice trying to be cheerful. Then he turned to David, “Are we? Did I do something?”

David shook his head right away. Then he remembered it was Tarjei they were talking about. So no. He had no idea. He shrugged.

“But... you are still together right?” Ian added, encouragingly. David squeezed his eyes shut, praying the boy would stop talking.

“No Ian. We are not together.” Henrik took a shuddered breath and continued. “Actually we’ve never been.”

“Oh.” Ian thought for a while. “Oh.”

“So it’s about him in that… You are… So then… Oh shit. I’m sorry.” Ian did look sorry.

“It’s okay.” Henrik said quietly.

“Language.” David sighed at the same time.

Then it was silent for a couple of minutes except for the sound of water running.

“Have you tried making him toast with an egg in it?” Asked Ian in all seriousness, taking another bite.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just want to see Henrik make breakfast and that’s the sole purpose of this chapter.
> 
> I’m sorry for making Tarjei grumpy haha. I happen to like grumpy Tarjei a lot ;p
> 
> I just want someone on Henrik’s side for once and I want this person to be David. David is the best.
> 
> I don’t know whether David has a brother. I made up everything about Ian.


End file.
